The Forgotten Goddess

The Forgotten Goddess by Olivier Delaye
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The people of Atlantis all have divine gifts. These gifts are viewed as natural and good, all except one gift. Those with gift of prophecy are killed and Sebasten Oryas just happens to have this gift. He and his mother simply say he has no gift which leaves him an outcast with only one friend, Sage. When Sebasten's Great Aunt who he has never met invites him for the summer, he along with Sage go for a visit. Unfortunately Sebasten has a vision of his own death before he travels to see her.

The Forgotten Goddess is a solid story that's 100 percent Young Adult. The standard elements are all present. A big plus is the writing is quite polished. I don't believe I noticed a single typo in the entire story which is remarkable for a what appears to be a self-published novel. The scenery is vivid and really comes to life.

The world of Atlantis has some interesting aspects to it in the divine gifts. Every human resident of Atlantis has their own gift that range significantly. A few of these gifts are prophecy, illusion, transformation, breathing under water, and speaking to various animals. It also appeared that all living things have the ability to use magic. Most seem only to use low magic, but some like Sebasten's Great Aunt Elma use high magic. The difference is largely lost on me, but multiple characters activated things using their low magic.

The characters themselves varied in the story. Certain characters like Aunt Elma just had a load of idiosyncrasies and personality that made her feel very much like the kind yet peculiar Aunt. Cinder also had more than enough personality to pop off the page and seem realistic. Unfortunately the main character Sebasten didn't come alive for me. Despite spending most of the book in his head and considering his visions, little of Sebasten's personality was put on display. In the end I didn't like or dislike him which for me isn't particularly ideal. I look for characters to invoke feelings in me and unfortunately that didn't happen with Sebasten.

In the end I have to say The Forgotten Goddess was a nice start from a new author, Olivier Delaye.


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All-New X-Men: Inevitable, Vol. 1: Ghost of the Cyclops

All-New X-Men: Inevitable, Vol. 1: Ghost of the Cyclops by Dennis Hopeless
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The All-New X-Men have formed up a new team. Jean Grey has left to live a normal life. Evan aka Kid Apocalypse and Oya have joined Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Angel, and the former X-23 current Wolverine Laura Kinney. Cyclops has set off on his own quest going after The Ghosts of Cyclops a group that revere the recently deceased present day Cyclops.

Meanwhile this group of young adults has their share of challenges.

I'm not a fan of Cyclops in general. He always seemed a pompous brown-noser and one of the best things I had seen was him doing his revolution business prior to his passing. He was still pompous, but he was at least honest. Despite my general feelings I feel terrible for past Cyclops. Traveling to the future and learning you turn into just about everything you hate has to be devastating.

He's handling things surprisingly well. The first three issues are primarily centered around him dealing with The Ghosts of Cyclops.

The next three issues shift into emotion-ville. All the young team members are forced to deal with their issues. Hank intelligence isn't cutting edge because of his jump to the future, Cyclops has to deal with what he becomes, Evan is an Apocalypse clone, Oya is religious and believed mutants were demons so she hates herself, Iceman is gay yet is uncomfortable with that fact, and Laura and Angel are having problems in their relationship.

This was really off-putting because the X-Men were literally all whining about their problems in these three issues. Perhaps for a young adult audience this would have been more appreciated, but I felt like I was being overwhelmed with teenage emotions even though they aren't all teenagers. I hope the author got that out of his system or at least is willing to take turns because it was just too much.

Ghost of Cyclops was an OK story, but their is still some potential. As always I still wonder when the time traveling X-Men will go home, but I'm trying to enjoy their story in the moment.

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